Outlaw Star: Distant Star Era

The Universe is much bigger and far stranger than originally thought...

Shiltolvian culture

Being an unstable race of gengineered murder machines, it was only natural that the shiltovians would develop an unorthodox and staggeringly brutal culture that reflects their own inherent instability and the unfairness of the universe that bore them.

The shiltolvians, over the last two centuries, have developed a faith comprising ritual murder, martyrdom, and pack-hunting which as it turns out is well-adapted to Deep Space Capitalism.

The major god of the shiltovian religion is Huitzltzadik, the Tshateh-Tayakanki (“Pack Leader”). It symbolizes the sun, the hunt, and sacrifice — the most important aspects of the shiltovian way of life.

Shiltovian society is stratified according to their faith structure, with warrior-priests [ khalefs ] positioned at the top of the hierarchy, followed by clergy [ meshuges ] soldiers [ tlamotki ], workers [ tlantli ] then, even below them, those born to be sacrificed [ neyvele ].

The higher-up a shiltovian is in their social stratus, the more Aashres, or the series of religious practices, they are expected to perform.

Aanish, the punishment for failure for living up to these laws: self-mutilation, usually of a specific body part associated with that failure.